


Future Past

by Topaz_Eyes



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Episode Related, Episode Tag, F/M, Ficlet, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-09
Updated: 2008-06-09
Packaged: 2017-10-03 14:13:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Topaz_Eyes/pseuds/Topaz_Eyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another fifteen years pass before the Doctor meets River Song again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Future Past

**Author's Note:**

> Dialogue in italics from 1 x 11, "Boom Town," and 4 x 09, "Forest of the Dead."

_The last time I saw you--the real you, the future you I mean--you turned up on my doorstep with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Direllian to see the singing towers. Oh, what a night that was--the towers sang--and you cried. You wouldn't tell me why--but I suppose you knew it was time. My time._

~

Another fifteen years pass before the Doctor meets River Song again.

She is not a professor yet, of course; she is just a graduate student at this point, but he still recognizes her immediately on the college campus. She wears the same wide smile and the same hair clip that only pretends to subdue her wild curls. She carries a stack of tomes, on top of which rests a small, leather-bound book.

She is heading towards the library, and he gallantly offers to carry her books. On the way, they make small talk about archeology, which she loves and he scoffs at. She is young, so painfully young, and her eyes dance with the recklessness of youth. He is older, his hair greying at the temples, but his own cockiness has not abated.

They are a good match. As it turns out, they have to be. Not five minutes later, he is grabbing her hand and they are sprinting across the college green, Time Agents at their heels. Events are a blur: but a seven-storey plunge, jury-rigged teleport and two raccoons later, the Doctor and River have escaped by the skin of their teeth and saved the day (though not necessarily in that order).

At dusk, they return to the path where their adventure had started. Most of the books they'd dropped have been gathered up by passersby--but the smallest one is missing in the falling darkness. By River's crestfallen face, the Doctor realizes what it is.

When they part, he silently vows to find it for her.

He shows up at her door later that evening to return her diary. "Sorry, it got a little banged up in the ruckus," he says as he hands it back. The leather is damp and cracked from falling in a puddle; the spine is fractured, the lock broken. The book is now tied together to hold in the loosened pages.

Their hands touch briefly against the warm leather. She compliments him on how well he's cleaned up from the afternoon's chase.

"Yeah, well, freshly cut hair and pressed suit works every time."

She asks if his life is always like this.

"Non-stop," he replies with a rakish grin. "Go go go, that's me. Always running. Always an adventure."

Without hesitation, she asks to join him.

His thoughts freeze solid. Margaret the Slitheen's voice echoes in his mind. _Always moving on 'cause you_ dare _not look back._

He knows he will look back with River every day: look back to see her forever pushing those two wires together. Look back to see her forever engulfed in that burst of white light. As long as she walks by his side, he will look back.

But he can't deny her, either. He owes her this: every line of what will come.

So when she asks again to join him, he says yes. He holds out his arm for her to take, and together they stroll towards the TARDIS, River's diary tight in her clasp.

Their first stop is Xanthia, just in time for moonrise. They sit together on a pink quartz outcrop across from blue crystal spires on the far horizon. The iridescent mauve and green light from the Xanthian sea plays across River's face; she gasps as the moon's rays turn the spires into sparkles of cold fire.

When she turns to look at him, he sees Sarah Jane and Rose; Jack and Martha and Donna, all reflected in her wonder. _Playing with so many people's lives_, Margaret whispers in his ear.

He knows he will save River (_did save her_) in the end.

He just can't save her from him.


End file.
